


Another Time. Another Place.

by Maruna



Series: Of Gods and Spirits [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Christmas meal, Gen, Little to No editing done here, More pairing may be mentioned or surfaced, Mother-Son Relationship, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic Relationships, Supernatural Elements, random stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-02-19 22:37:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13133652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maruna/pseuds/Maruna
Summary: A collection of short unedited stories in this story's universe. Expect this to update randomly.





	1. You know the look kids give you when you stare at a certain display for far too long?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Christmas Eve with Hanzo and Yui.
> 
> Time: They have been travelling together for two years now.  
> Place: Tokyo, Japan.

Christmas in Tokyo can be either described as beautiful or absolutely chaotic.

Beautiful as in the bright lights and soft snow make a perfect scene. Which was why it often came up within shows and movies, as well as been performed by teenagers who wanted to try their hand at romanticism.

Simultaneously in reality, you have millions of people rushing around the place. Most of them were doing last minute shopping, because they have forgotten it till the last minute and now panicking on what to get them. Some of them were hoping to catch the earlier train to get back home, wherever that may be.

Thus it became easy for slow stragglers to be missed in the crowd. People don’t really take second glances at people around them. Particularly the one that has been staring at window display for a while, so absorbed he didn’t even realise his companion calling for him.

“Hanzo.” Yui growled. Not really daring to raise her voice for various reasons. However she did expect him to actually take notice of her reflection in the glass by now. Instead he was still staring at that bloody overpriced Christmas cake.

She huffed and kicked his prosthetics, knowing full well it will hurt her more than it shocked him. The archer still didn’t turn around, just shifted his footing. Yui gave up.

“ _ **Hanzo**_.” She pinched his ears, pulling him down to her level. “If you want that cake so badly, go in there and buy it. Don’t just stare at it!”

The archer winced as he was pulled down. Of course she wasn’t pinching it that hard, but it was sudden.

“I wasn’t staring at it that long,” Hanzo mumbled.

Yui sighed heavily. “Hanzo I went and took twenty minutes to book a secure hotel room. In that time you have not even moved from this display window.”

His face flushed, he really didn’t notice how long he had been staring at it.

He wasn’t very fond of sweets. Partially because he was just not used to it, the teacher’s don’t give him sweets and neither does any of the attendants. Definitely not his father, who rarely give him anything other than instructions. While his diet was fairly controlled, Genji managed to abuse his training to steal candies from other kids. Sometime he shared with Hanzo, but more often than not, he finished the whole pile of stolen goods before he even found out about it.

This lasted all the way to his adulthood, where he cannot stand the taste of most sweets on the market. There were some exceptions. Like strawberries and various strawberry flavoured snack, influenced heavily by his mother who were also fond of those sweets and often give it to him a treats before she was killed. There were more exceptions and Yui seemed to be absolutely determined to find out each and every single of them. And of course he didn’t want her to.

“If you are done then, we should probably go find dinner.” Hanzo said, quickly walking off to make sure he would not stare at the display any longer.

Yui ran after him, uncaring of how many people she bumped into. “Come on it’s Christmas. You really don’t want the cake?” she asked.

Now it was Hanzo’s turn to sigh. “I told you I don’t like sweets.”

The woman snorted. “Hypocrite. You liked the mochi I got you last time.”

“It was a savoury one. Filled with tea.” He countered.

“It was also sweet, so therefore it’s sweets.” She jogged in front of him. Walking backwards in pace with him. “Hanzo do I have to go through that talk again?”

Hanzo cringed, last time the ‘talk’ lasted for a good hour. In a sense he knew he needed it, but at the same time he doesn’t like to hear it or even _want_ to hear it. “Preferably not.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Well you are not leaving me with much choice.”

“Yui.” Hanzo took a breath. “There will be few jobs we can take between now and February. We should be conserving our current funds. And- No. I know you have your own funds but we have both agreed it should be only used in emergency.”

She shut her mouth quickly, knowing everything he said was true.

“So how much money do you have now?” Minus the deposit she took for booking the hotel room. Seeing the archer’s grimace, she huffed. “Well to be fair our last mark was sponsored by people who also can have trouble getting enough money together for a meal.”

They also did not take the second half of the payment, knowing how they finally killed a greedy asshole who tried to charge for the essential items in life, they find it worth it to just take the deposit and call it a job well done.

“I’m sure I can manage.” Hanzo forced a smile. However that seemed to get Yui more upset.

“Okay no.” She stopped in her tracked and grabbed his jacket so he would also stop. “Today is Christmas eve. I refuse to let you go eat cheap bento from convenience store.”

Not to mention she know exactly how much he eats, no matter how hard the archer tried to hide it. Sure he doesn’t complain when going long periods with very little food, but she has seen him enough food to feed four other men. Which was perfect when a restaurant has an all-you-can-eat challenges, saves a lot of money and actually allowed him to be actually full for once.

Hanzo shook his head. “I don’t have a lot of choice here. Hardly believe you can hunt anything more than small mice in the heart of the city.” A beat of silence as he stared at Yui, there was a glimmer in her eyes. That was not a good sign. “Please do not do that.” He quickly added.

Yui rolled her eyes. “Have a little more faith in me boy. I may be scattered brain and have weird taste, but I know how to take care of people.”

She dug around her pockets and took out a small key card with a tag. “Go get your bento or whatever you want and meet me back in the hotel room.”

Hanzo stared at her warily, while taking the key. “What are you planning?”

“Will not touch my saved funds I promise. But by hell or high water I am giving you actual Christmas meal.” She blew a raspberry before running into the crowd. Hanzo called after her but she was already too far away, her form changing with each step. Soon she was completely out of sight.

The archer sighed heavily. Patting his pocket he could easily feel the credit chip that Yui tried to discreetly slip into his pocket, along with that booklet of worn coupon. True he didn’t felt when she slipped it in, but he know it was hers and she wanted him to buy something bit more nourishing. Even though it doesn’t quite matter what he eats, those are just food and it doesn’t matter. Even though he was a bit hungry and could do with extra boxes of bento.

Still he would endeavour not to touch either of her stuff.

 

* * *

 

He ended up using Yui’s coupons.

One of them happened to be a deal for a set of six bentos for a very low price. It became much lower when he point out one of the bentos was expired. Now he really can’t pass up on that deal. Not when he doesn’t know when he could get his next job or when they could manage to get close to some sort of wilderness for hunting.

So now he sat alone in the hotel room, letting the remote flicking through channels while he finished eating the last box. It was not very filling, but he figured it would tie him over for the week or so. His dragons were also not happy about it. Especially Chi, who urged him to use her card to buy better food to eat. Haru on the other hand just wanted him to buy some snacks because he deserved some, and hoping he would share some with them.

Hanzo smiled as he pushed Haru away from the last bite of rice. They really don’t need to eat, but they like to. Possibly because he fed them various foods when he was little and they have just gained an affinity for it. Chi at least was less bold in trying to take a bite out of his meal. They have also grown stronger during the last two years and now can become corporeal on their own will and not take much energy from him.

Suddenly there was a heavy knock on the door.

He couldn’t help but tensed at the sound. Travelling alone for so long, any knocking on the door make him tensed up. Still he resisted the urge to gather all his things and climb out the window. Instead sending Chi to check out who was it outside. Most likely it was Yui.

“You better not be in the showers and get out here to help me with the bags. They are freakin heavy!”

Yes it was Yui.

Quickly he got up and opened the door. Yui still stood outside, covered in white and holding two incredibly large bags. Before he can asked about them she pushed her way inside, dumping the bags on the low table in the room. Haru was the first to dive into the plastic bags, with Chi following right behind.

Yui shook her body like a dog, dislodging heavy amount of snow on the carpet. “Holy crap, I really hope the snow let up before we leave because travelling in this weather is going to be a nightmare.”

Hanzo just sighed. “Yui didn’t you promise-”

“I did not spend a single yen from my bank account.” She said simply and changed her clothe. Layers of thick heavy coat melted and reformed into her hair. Long ago he asked whether she was bothered by the cold. She glared at him and formed a denser layer of fur right on the spot.

He stared at all the bags on the table. Most of them are plastic, but he can see they are bulky and probably filled with so much expensive food. Not to mention two of them are covered in purple cloth with a moon logo on one of the corner. “Then how did you...?” He has his fingers crossed that she didn’t steal them. That will probably gather unnecessary attention.

Yui laughed nervously. That was not a good sign.

“Look if you really wanted to know how... Change to a news channel.” She dug out the remote control from the mess on the table and threw it towards Hanzo.

He caught it and began flicking through various news channels. “What did you do?” Hanzo has guesses but he doesn’t want any of it to be true. Since all of them are illegal or just frankly disgusting.

“Nothing bad. But it did create a lot of attention which I know you hated.” She sat down and started unpacking the bags, pointedly ignoring the television screen.

After a good minute of flipping through news channel, Hanzo found her. Although she looked nothing like any of the form she has taken on before.

Her face was mostly covered in a wolf head-dress, her golden eyes gleaming from between the pelt’s teeth. She was smiling as she danced and pranced around in the snow, even making snowballs to juggle with. Sometime she gets close to one audience, playing around close to them and hand them a sprig of holly and occasionally sprig of mistletoe between a couple. Whimsical music blared out from a speaker from the side, along with a small cash box machine. A large signed taped to the bottom, asking them to tap their credit chip to donate some money. The reporter talked about how the sudden appearance of the wolf have managed to give many smiles to children, although parents seemed to be a bit exasperated that their kids took their card and tap on the machine repeatedly.

Yui just buried her face and mumble something incoherently. The few phrases Hanzo managed to get out was ‘how embarrassing’, and ‘should have destroy the reporter’s camera’.

He couldn’t help but chuckle a little at that. “I didn’t know you could-”

“Hanzo I have regularly send kids to school, sometime even private schools.” She snapped, her face completely flushed but there was still her usual grin on her face. “I had to get some kind of skills to earn money.”

“So you got all of these...” Looking at the table she has already taken out everything from the bags. They were literally all food. He could already feel the saliva gathering underneath his tongue.

“Yup!” Yui opened up one of the biggest box, revealing steaming hot food. “Family pack feast from two different restaurants. There are also two boxes of Kitsune Oden as I met up with him and his son on the way here and a little surprise I will show you later. Your favourite sake are there,” she pulled up the green bottle. Yui glared at Hanzo briefly. “try not to go overboard with those.”

Hanzo huffed. She worried too much on that. He can hold his liquor well and has only blacked out twice. However it seemed that getting so drunk he blacked out on purpose just one time was too much for Yui.

“Dig in, before Chi and Haru took the good bits.” Yui laughed as she pulled Haru straight out of the box of tempura. Their blue whiskers already covered in crumbs. They chew quicker as she tried to pull the shrimp out of their mouth. Chi took that time to quickly bite on to a piece of eel and scampered off down the table.

Hanzo chuckled at the sight, as Yui transformed herself into small dragon to give chase. Playing and distracting the dragon to allow him to take his meal in peace. He didn’t realise how hungry he still was, until he finished the first box and was still ready for the next. Didn’t take long for him to actually finish half the food either and actually felt perfectly full for once.

Chi and Haru both calmed down somewhat towards the end. Both very satisfied with the bits and pieces they managed to get. Chi seemed to be especially satisfied with the fish tofu from the Oden, while Haru still have a piece of tempura shrimp in their maw. Yui sighed and changed back into a human, flopping down on the seat to the side.

“You full now?” she asked, picking a few of the leftover pieces to eat herself.

Hanzo hummed quietly, nursing his cup of warm sake. He stared at the two empty boxes. Boxes that were meant to feed a family of four and not one man. “Mostly.” He replied evenly, trying to hide his smile behind the cup.

A huge grin went across her face. “Well hopefully all three of you have some more room for this.”

Quickly she took out a white box from the side, it was huge and bound in bright red ribbon with Merry Christmas written along it. She shifted her nails into talons cut the ribbon on the white box, letting the walls fall apart dramatically, revealing a white fluffy cake, topped with glistening strawberries and a little Santa figurines. A giant chocolate plaque was in the middle, with the fanciest ‘Merry Christmas’ written in the middle.

“Ta-da!”

Chi and Haru stood to attention first. Haru was the one that tried to lunge for the chocolate piece in the center until Yui grasped them and hauled her back a little. She made a look towards the dragon, pretty much saying. “Wait for a bit will you?”

Hanzo was still staring at the cake stunned. It was the exact one he has been staring at before. He valiantly tried to swallow back the saliva before speaking. “You-”

“I can tell this is an exception.” Yui chuckled, handing him a knife and plate. “Merry Christmas Hanzo.”

It took a while before Hanzo reacted and took the knife to cut the cake. “I feel like I should have given you something as well.” He mumbled quietly as he tried to cut a smaller piece for himself, and cutting a bigger chunk for Yui.

She was having none of that, and instantly snatched up the smaller piece. Breaking them into smaller pieces for the dragons to munch on, they almost bit her finger off with the way they lunge for it. “Hanzo. Anytime my charges are happy and healthy is the greatest gift they can give me.” She said gently and broke off another piece for the dragons. “And you are one of them. So treat yourself better for me okay?”

Hanzo stared at the piece of cake, wondering just what he did to actually deserve this. It wasn’t a productive year, half the time they were forced to be in the wilderness as they travelled to the next city on foot. They didn’t finish dismantling the Shimada operation in China, having screwed up one of the target and they needed to lie low in Japan. Yui also spent too much time trying to help him. Going from gathering information as various animal form, or patching him up after a fight, or drag him out of the gutter from time to time.

Yui seemed to read his mind. She sighed softly. “You have done plenty this year. There was no need to rush too much. No shame in taking those baby steps. Take a rest, take care of yourself. And if not for me at least do it for your dragons at the very least. They would not want to see you like this.”

She wanted to mention his late brother and mother as well, but seeing his guilt-filled expression he might have already thought about them. Quietly she shifted to her most common form. The black wolf gently pushed behind him and settled there. She rumbled deeply and let the archer settled down his breathing.

After a while Hanzo finally calmed down enough. “Thank you.” He whispered, scratching behind her ears. “Merry Christmas.”

“You’re welcome.” Yui rumbled, closing her eyes and settling down on the pillows. “Merry Christmas.”

It was a rare peaceful night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas everyone!


	2. Who thought those mouse traps were even a good idea? No one can ever set those thing up properly it might be better to just to hire the exterminator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time: One week since Hanzo’s arrival
> 
> Place: Watchpoint Gibraltar

_Skrit... Skrit... Scratch... Scratch_

 

Black furry ears flickered, ingrained habit made them instantly twist towards the area of the sound. Even when Yui tried her best not to focus on it, she know what those sound were but she shouldn’t do anything about it. She pinched her own ears trying to force herself to focus on the tablet in front of her. There were news she really need to catch up on and she needed to make sure the things she remembered really did happen and not something from her dreams again. Not to mention it would be best to read up on all those people her charge has to live with and know what kind of person they are.

_Skriiiiiiiiitch_

Yui resisted the urge to slam the tablet down on the table – or crack it in her hand. Hanzo was asleep behind her and for once he was sleeping soundly, she wasn’t about to go wake him up because she got annoyed by couple of mice in the vents. Besides she knew they were a problem – Winston was complaining about them earlier today on how they are chewing through some of the cables in an attempt to navigate around the vent system on base. Also they have been trying to get into his peanut butter stash.

However all of them meant very little to her other than that noise was completely grating on her nerves - nerves that have been pretty frayed thanks to a fucking cowboy. So despite her desire to keep her secret and not cause too much trouble for Hanzo, she turned herself into a moth, and flew into the vent. She will just deal with the mouse problem enough so that she won’t be hearing it every night at the very least. On the other hand she also have to make sure not to do too much that it draws suspicions or get caught on camera.

Once in she changed her form again, first into a mouse, but then she paused. It seemed obvious to change into the creature you are hunting but at the same time she wasn’t quite sure just what Winston did to try and catch the mice. As much as the fact nothing can really hurt her, it was still unpleasant to be killed. She somehow still remembered how it felt to be tried by drowning as a witch. It would be best to take on a form that would not be mistaken as a mouse. A snake seemed to be suitable, but she had to change the scale colour somewhat to blend into the metal surface.

She quietly wandered around the vent for a bit, tasting the air for those pests and slither out of the way of Athena’s drones. Which also reminded Yui of another thing that was on her to-do list; talking to the AI and just see how intelligent they are and how much she could reason with them. In hind-sight, chasing after mice in the vents in her various forms probably wasn’t a good idea.

_Skrit_

Yui stopped. She lowered herself completely to the floor, slithering quietly across the metal and keeping to the dark. She soon spotted the source of the noise. Two mice, engorging themselves on the bait on the mouse trap. It was obvious that there was too much bait on the trap, those mice managed to not trigger the bait by picking off bits and pieces. If she has hands at the moment, Yui would have face palmed. In the end there was a better use of her single limb. She slithered closer and slapped the trap, causing it to instantly snap shut on the two mice, silencing them instantly.

She shifted again back to a mouse, just wanting a body with more limbs and fingers so she could reset the trap again. As well as fixing it slightly to make it easier to trigger next time, she end up having to eat most of the peanut butter so that there was only a scrap remaining on the end of the trap. Enough that would entice the mice but not so much that they could steal it without triggering the trap. The mice body were something she didn’t think that far enough ahead for, so she opted in dragging them to the path where a cleaner drone will eventually run over. She could eat it herself, but she doesn’t want to get rid of the mouth full of peanut butter taste.

Yui has to wonder why Winston chose this instead of myriad of other technologies that they could have used to catch the mice. Then she was reminded that Overwatch is now nothing more than a vigilante group and hiring a local exterminator might be a huge security risk. The rest were probably too expensive for them to use all the time. Besides seeing the peanut butter as bait was probably a good indication of the sacrifice the giant gorilla made to make sure this old base was made liveable again.

Suddenly a smooth tone echoed in the vents. “Would you mind resetting another trap?”

She would not admit that she almost lost her form right there at the noise. This would be a very bad time to reveal her nature, especially when Hanzo was still so heavily mistrusted by everyone on base. She took in a slow and careful breath to ensure her form remained steady before asking quietly to the empty vent. “Athena?”

“Affirmative.”

Yui take in more measured breath. “I’m gonna have to talk to you a little later, but sure. Just point to me where the others are.”

“Understood. Please follow the drones.” The vent light up as a single drone rolled into view. Yui blinked a little before approaching the drone carefully. Working with an AI always made her nervous. They are not quite a living thing, but created things. Something that has a growing soul but not quite there yet, just like the early omnics before they gain all their independent thoughts. At that point Yui just treat them like smarter tsukumogami.

However she pushed those thoughts further back in her mind as she was led to another mouse trap. This one was at least somewhat successful but it would still need to be reset and she could see why Athena wanted her to help. Rotting mouse corpse probably wasn’t all that great to wires so this was a problem that really needed to be fixed. After that one the drones beeped again, moving on to the next mouse trap.

Yui don’t quite remember how long she spent on fixing those traps. There were a shocking amount of traps that were improperly planted. It was most probably by accident and some it was just not possible. Many of them have a very strong smell that she could tell exactly who set those traps in her mouse form. Nothing she could do about that other than smearing the bait on the whole trap to make it less noticeable. Almost all the traps have too much bait anyway. It was probably piece of cake for all the mice to scrap off all the edges and not trigger the trap at all. Or they could easily wait until one of their brethren was killed and just take the bait after the trap was sprung. Those mice she has to kill them herself before resetting the bait all over.

By the end, her fur was bloody, her body was sore, too much sticky peanut butter between her teeth and nails, but there was glorious silence in the vents again. She yawned and stretched, “alright that’s all of them. Get me to an empty room we need to talk.”

“Should I call for Winston or Commander Morr-”

“Your choice. I don’t really mind either way.” Yui said quickly before any part of her had a chance to debate whether it was a good idea or not.

Athena led her out to an empty room where she happily turned back to a human. At least mostly human, there were several parts of her that she simply could not change. Thankfully most humans don’t notice the difference anyway. Body modification was so common and drastic, no one really bat an eye at the unnaturally bright eyes or the sharpened teeth. Still Yui worried for a bit as she waited in the room, watching the door and see if Athena has called anyone else here.

“May I ask. What manner of being are you?” Athena asked.

Yui frowned, she opened her mouth to answer but shut it just quickly. In the end she just murmured, “I don’t know. More like... I don’t remember.” She sighed, it always felt like she should know the answer. It was always just on the tip of her tongue, a small flash of memory that faded too soon. Yet nothing ever come to her, it was with someone else. Right now she has a more immediate problem. “And because I can’t remember, I don’t mind it if you decide to tell the others. Only if they ask for it.”

There was no reason for her to announce to the world she was powerful, but not even knowing how to use those powers. Besides she saw what power destroy people, both good and bad. All she really need was enough to keep people around her safe.

There was quiet in the room, just the small buzz of screens as Athena’s logo twirl about. Soon the AI replied, “you would like an open secret.”

“Yes.” Yui breathed out in relieve. She began to like the AI. It seemed she can understand some of the reasoning she have, or just the fact that she was taking in reason and was willing to talk to her in private. Private enough with all the cameras recording her action, it was just getting unreasonably hard to try and dodge them all.

“Would you mind helping in sorting out some delicate wires?” Athena asked.

Okay now Yui really like the AI.

“So we’re good with what I said? Are you going to call anyone here?” She jumped up from the desk, turning into a cat. Her form was not settling down though, it was rippling around the edges.

“The terms are agreeable. And you have not shown any hostility to any of the agents in my walls, so the priority to informing them is low.”

Yui snorted. “As long as they do not harm my boy, I will not harm any of them.”

There was a silence, before the AI asked quietly. “What will you do if he was harmed?”

Images flashed inside her head. A child screamed for her, her hand bloody. Blood was everywhere but not her blood and most of them not from her child. A disgusted voice called her a monster, their voice rattling in her head. However as soon as they came, they depart, leaving nothing behind. Nothing for her to carefully recall. Just a feeling of dread.

“Depends,” Yui answered with a shrug. She can’t dwell on what she can’t remember. “We’ll burn that bridge when we cross it. Now where are those wires?”

 

* * *

 

 

Yui returned to Hanzo’s room just minutes before he woke. She had taken a quick bath in the communal showers to get rid of the blood and peanut butter, both to not annoy Hanzo by messing up his room and that it was uncomfortable. Athena graciously helped by turning on the hot water for her and directing her to one of the air conditioning vent to dry off. Her mind felt tired despite knowing her body never had a real need to sleep or eat, those were just habits she kept up to have a semblance of normal schedule.

Now apparently this schedule included regular cleaning with her drones in the vents and mechanical panels, just for start. She wanted to do more, but that will be further in the future. This new schedule she might take a while to get used to, but she knew it would help her keep Hanzo safe in this unfamiliar place.


	3. The writer was definitely not living through a certain character in this chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time: Sunny Thursday Afternoon  
> Place: Kitchen at Watchpoint Gibraltar

“So Lizzie thought there were absolutely no repercussions for trying to take a bath in a lake that you can’t see the bottom of. Surprise, surprise she literally got yanked down within minutes of setting her foot in water. Almost half way into the lake and I had to swim in and fish her out.” Yui sighed, stretching herself on the kitchen table. Today was particularly peaceful and sunny so she chose to laze on the kitchen counter as a cat.

Ana snorted, “I assume this is how you learn to change into something that can breathe underwater.” She was on the stove getting dinner ready for everyone. All stovetop full of pots and pans simmering the food, while she continued to cut up more vegetables for the next dishes. Since the returning team tonight included Reinhardt she has to prepare early to make sure there was enough food for the other people once the German went through everything.

“That’s when I learnt how to _talk_ underwater. Thank goodness that Kelpie wasn’t too miffed for being stepped on. I still have to-” A gentle chime rang out from the speaker and Yui immediately stops. It was a special tone that Athena played specifically for her when someone was coming into the room. Ana also dropped the knife and wiped her hands on the towel.

Seconds later Lucio skated into the kitchen in high speed, braking just before hitting the kitchen table.

“Hey Ana I got something to-” Lucio stopped as he laid his eyes on the black cat on the counter. Yui stared back unblinkingly, even as the young man came over to give her scratches on the head. “Since when did we have a cat here?”

Yui meowed and leaned into the touch. She gave him a look with big wide eyes, doing her best to look adorable.

“Just a stray that wondered into base.” Ana said simply. “Don’t think too hard about it. You know cats can get into the strangest places. Now, what was it you wanted to share?”

“Oh... Uh...” He scratched his neck, skating back a bit.

Yui watched with fascination. It was rare to see the musician uncertain. Usually the young man can think so fast, he would be the only one that could keep up with the doctor’s rapid orders during an emergency. While everyone else scramble to make sure their only medics were safe from harm.

“Well I have been getting some weird dreams recently and I don’t quite know what it means and I don’t want to ask my fans about it.” His voice trailed into a mumble but to Ana it was still audible and it made her raise her eyebrows.

“Why not? You have the most supportive fan base.”

Supportive as in they have absolutely no qualms about their favourite DJ taking on a megacorporation like Vishkar and then joining a vigilante Overwatch group. Some even gather intel for him with absolute fanatic glee. So of course one would argue that with that kind of fans they would not mind him sharing something personal nor would it in anyway endanger him.

Lucio scratched his head. “They don’t know who Genji is and I don’t think he appreciate being internet famous like that.”

Yui’s ears perked up and she sat up in attention. Ana resist the urge to chuckle at that. The shapeshifter might be thousands of years old but she still was not immune to any sort of gossip – particularly anything concerning the Shimada brothers.

“Look like this needs my full attention.” Ana turned down all the heat for the pots, one last check to make sure all of them have no chance to spill over. She even filled the electric kettle before settling down on the table.

It made Lucio a little bit nervous. “I mean it’s like... Super strange but I’m not that sure about interesting,” he mumbled quickly but still sat down on the table. Yui jumped from the counter and trotted over as well, settling herself nicely in a loaf position in between the pot roast and stacks of steaks.

Ana hummed, “we shall see. Now tell me about this dream.”

“Well it started off at the kind of normal. I was in my room composing a new song. Then suddenly Genji bust into the room. Saying he has something to show me. Also for some reason he was not in his usual armour? Like I know it’s him underneath but for some reason he was wearing something that reminded me of those Sentai Rangers I used to admire.”

Ana glanced at the side and watched Yui fidget in her loaf form.

“Anyways so I said yes because seeing what he has to show me always make me so excited. Like my heartrate just go way up from excitement. I dropped what I was doing and followed him to his room. It wasn’t like his room in real life though. When I went through the door it felt like I went to another world like I just stepped in one of those Japanese painting he has in his room. There is somehow a pond with a small waterfall and lily pads as well. Oh! Oh! And there are those adorable frogs sitting on top.”

Whatever hesitance Lucio has before, have now all been evaporated. He rocked on the chair and his story sped up.

“He led me to the back of the waterfall where there is a giant bamboo cabinet there of all things. Not sure how well the thing does next to the water but again it’s a dream. Then he opened up his cupboard and there were just columns of swords lining it, like all the way to the top packed blade to blade almost. Somehow I expected him to have this many swords for some reason. He pulled down one that was somehow fleshy coloured and hand it to me. For some reason I put up a dare saying that I probably could swallow. Don’t know why but it did got me curious about the whole process. Like how straight do you have to make the oesophagus-”

“Lucio you are getting a little off track,” Ana cuts in. She leaned on her hands while her other stroke over Yui, whose body already was tense. Her ears flipped back and forth and her eye stared at Lucio intently. The usual soothing touches were not helping her as intended.

“Oh yeah sorry. As I was saying I made that weird dare and then Genji just thrust the sword at me and telling me to prove it. But since that thing is rather long I told him to sit down so I can go down on it. I don’t quite know why that works but hey this dream was already weird so I guess my brain wanted it weirder.”

Ana could feel Yui literally holding back herself. She was fidgeting to get out of the loaf position, back leg already raised, but her front paws remain firmly rooted on the table. For extra security the old woman decide to just lay her hand still on top of the cat, gently pushing her down on the table. Lucio continued on, oblivious to the actions.

“It was actually pretty easy to swallow the thing. For some reason it keep getting bigger as I go deeper on it. The stretch was kinda unreal. It doesn’t even hurt as I go down it. Maybe I temporarily changed into a frog? I actually don’t quite remember that bit. Anyways as soon as I finish swallow the sword I woke up. Pretty strange dream huh?”

“It is quite peculiar.” Ana said. Her smile has a sly note that only Yui seemed to notice. “Have you told anyone else about it?”

“Hana. But she just got a red face, that she tried to hide behind her hands, and told me to ask someone else about it.”

Ana tapped her cheek, seemingly lost in thought. “Well I don’t see any hidden meanings in the dream so I don’t think you should think too hard about it.”

“Really?” Lucio looked really relieved, making the old sniper chuckled.

“I do suggest you talk to Genji about it. After all he is in the dream.” She said calmly.

“Yeah that make sense. Thanks Ana!”

With that the boy jumped up and skate out of the room. Yui leapt off the table and trotted to the doorway watching him leave. As soon as Lucio left and well out of hearing range. Yui looked back up to Ana. “I don’t know how long I can take this Ana.” She said, desperation and pain laced through her voice.

Ana sighed and scratched behind Yui’s ears. “Be strong dear, the boys will sort themselves out eventually.”

“But when?! Holy heck I have not seen this many emotionally dense people in one place!” She whined, lying flat on the table with her paws over her head. “Ana this is a real life slow burn happening here and I have not done well with these kinds of fanfics, so there is no way I can handle it. Not to mention there is at definitely TWO pairs of emotionally dense idiots!”

“At least Genji is not in denial, he just need to have a new pair of balls installed in by Angela. Hanzo and McCree on the other hand...”

Yui dragged her claws down her face. “I can’t watch this Ana, I can’t handle how much they just refused to _talk_ and just _ask_!” Her prejudice be damned, she might still not trust the cowboy but watching them dancing around each other was a sort of pain she just struggle to deal with.

“Promise me you won’t do anything drastic at least.”

“Yeah, yeah... sure... ”

The tone was too flippant for Ana and it doesn’t take a huge leap of logic to know what Yui was planning. “Locking them in a small enclosed space will count as drastic. Genji will break down the door within seconds.”

Yui flopped into a complete pancake, face down. “Oh fucking damn it,” she groaned.

Ana chuckled, “Trust in the boys, they have a good heart and will sort it out. Besides, we will be running damage control when they are being an idiot.”

She could imagine it. If they were this dense when they were just crushing after one another, then how much more clueless when they get pass that stage? Would they even be able to see how they show affection differently? The more she thought about, the more depressing it gets. There was only one thing for them to do.

“We both have a compilation of comfort food they liked right?” Yui mumbled.

Ana had the same thought as she got up from the table. “Athena can you open the grocery list?”

 

* * *

 

For the next week there was a strange surge of snacks appearing on base. All sorts as from all locations, even something completely obscure sounding or looking plain weird. No one really question it, especially after seeing the Shimada brother’s fighting over a box of frozen mochi. That was an entertainment they never thought they would witness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Psst Find me on Twitter :U  
> @MaruExistence

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr: http://rolling-into-existence.tumblr.com


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